Day: April 26, 2020

Govs. Larry Hogan of Maryland (R) and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan (D) said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s recent comments musing about whether disinfectant could potentially be injected as a remedy for coronavirus caused a surge in phone calls to emergency hotlines in their states inquiring about its truth.

“When misinformation comes out, or you just say something that pops in your head, it does send a wrong message,” Hogan said on ABC’s This Week. “We had hundreds of calls come into our emergency hotline at our health department asking if it was right to ingest Clorox or alcohol …

President Donald Trump has several huge fights on his hands: America is under attack from a brutal pandemic. Its economy is collapsing. And he is facing a difficult reelection campaign.

In the absence of real plans to solve any of these, Trump is relying on a move that comes reflexively for him: Blasting out messages that are either pointless digressions or outright lies — not to persuade people, but to distract and confuse them.

Take, for instance, a tweet he took the time to fire off Saturday afternoon that seemed petty even by his own Twitter standards: He wanted …

Dr. Deborah Birx, one of the White House coronavirus task force’s top public health officials, said Sunday Americans should expect to continue practicing social distancing through the summer.

As more than a dozen states prepare to loosen restrictions on social and business interactions, Birx noted those plans do not mean protective measures can be suspended. And she also said that mass diagnostic testing — on a scale not yet possible — would be needed before social distancing guidelines can be safely lifted.

“Social distancing will be with us through the summer to really ensure that we protect one another as …

Vice President Mike Pence’s favorite talking point about coronavirus testing demonstrates that President Donald Trump isn’t the only White House official capable of misleading the public.

On Friday, Pence touted what he called a milestone for coronavirus testing in the United States — but his remarks left out important context that reveals it isn’t everything he’s cracking it up to be.

“You may recall that one month ago, all of the testing that had been done in America, 80,000 Americans had been [tested]. But as of this morning, 5.1 million Americans have been tested for the coronavirus,” Pence said.